Alex Robinson All the tea in China

Learning the intricacies of a Chinese tea ceremony is hard – centuries of tradition go into making the teapot alone. But it’ll give you whole new outlook on the humble cuppa, as our writer discovered…

Guns, bites, dodgy bowels – these are not my travel nightmares. What I really fear is a Lipton’s teabag floating limply in half a cup of lukewarm water. I admit it, I complain. I’m a tea connoisseur who knows what makes a perfect brew – or so I thought. Then I visited Yixing.

This little city, near the formerr Chinese capital of Nanjing, is where tea-making turns into high art. Not only are the world’s finest teas drunk here, they are prepared and served in the world’s finest drinking vessels – made from coloured clays that are found only in Yixing’s Yellow Dragon Mountain. For many Chinese, Ming is bling – and Yixing teapots are the collector’s items they covet. Even today, pots crafted by local artists such as master ceramist Gu Jingzhou sell for over £1 million at auctions in Hong Kong and Beijing.